Smiling In My Sleep
by FearlessAndRed
Summary: For Jasmine (justkeeptyping), on her birthday.


**_Author's Note_**

_This is for Jasmine who I hope has had a wonderful birthday today. Go find her at justkeeptyping because she is an amazing writer. The title of this story is inspired by Demi Lovato's Catch Me which I listened to while writing this._

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**_Disclaimer_**

_I do not own House of Anubis, the song Catch Me by Demi Lovato, the song Laughter Lines by Bastille, Freaks and Geeks, Harry Potter or Peter Pan (see if you can spot the references! For some reason this story ended up with a lot of them in)._

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_For Jasmine._

1

"Thanks for helping me with this Maths homework, Mara. You're a lifesaver."

"It's alright, Amber. I'm just happy to help. Plus, going over it with you helps me remember it too so it's a win-win situation." Mara replied, holding the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she cleared up the books on her desk in her bedroom.

"You're such a sweetheart. Now, if only I could find you a boyfriend." Amber said and Mara laughed, taking the phone back in her hand.

"Amber, I don't need a boyfriend." Mara walked over to her full-length mirror and checked her reflection.

"Why not? I have Alfie and he's lovely. And, I mean-" Amber was drowned out by Mara's mother calling for her from downstairs.

"Oh, sorry, Amber. I better go. My parents invited our new neighbours round for dinner and I think they're here." Mara said.

"Sure! I'll see you on Monday."

"See you then." Mara smiled and hung up the phone, placing it on her bedside table. She was glad she had a friend in Amber, _she_ was the sweetheart.

Mara looked over her outfit again in the mirror. She thought she looked quite nice in her black dress with a Peter Pan collar, knee-high grey socks and navy blue brogues. Her hair was down and slightly wavy.

"Mara!" Her mother called her again.

"Alright, I'm coming!" She called back, leaving her room and promptly tripping over a tennis ball. She managed to catch herself before she fell face first, and stood up straight. "For goodness sake, parents leaving their stuff all over the place." She murmured to herself.

Mara was humming to herself as she walked down the stairs when she realised there was a small crowd of people chatting in the hallway. She stopped humming, she didn't want an audience.

Mrs Jaffray turned and saw Mara walking down the stairs and smiled. "Ah, here you are. Everyone, this is my daughter, Mara." Mara reached the bottom of the stairs and gave a little wave. "Mara, this is John Clarke," She gestured to a kind-looking man standing next to her, "his daughter Poppy," a girl who looked about the same height as Mara smiled and waved, "and his son Jerome, who I believe is the same age as you." Jerome, who had been standing with his hands in his pockets and had been looking at his feet, looked up to smile at her, then suddenly stood still. Mara stood still too, and blinked.

Mara had not been expecting one of her new neighbours to have such hypnotizing and bright blue eyes.

Jerome must have not even expected one of his new neighbours to be an actual girl, he looked so surprised. But the surprised expression on his face soon turned into a smile (a very nice smile, in Mara's opinion)and he looked less shocked. "Nice to meet you." he said.

Poppy rolled her eyes. "Jerome." She said, sounding exasperated.

"What?!" He looked at Poppy, as if wondering what on earth he'd done wrong, but at the same time the smirk on his face suggested that he knew, and Poppy said as much.

"Oh, you _know_ what." Poppy narrowed her eyes at him and they stuck their tongues out at each other. Mara giggled at them and Jerome turned at the sound. He smiled at her and Mara smiled back.

"Right, shall we go through to the dining room?" Mrs Jaffray asked. "My husband is currently in the kitchen cooking our dinner but you can meet him when he's ready to serve it."

2

Mara had had no idea that the dinner would go so well and be so enjoyable. They were eating their dessert of Eton Mess when Mara, who was sat at one end of the table, opposite her father, with Poppy to her right and Jerome to her left, could have sworn that she heard someone humming what sounded like her favourite Bastille song. She turned to look at Jerome, who was picking a raspberry out of his bowl and who was definitely humming. She watched him for a moment and decided he was definitely humming _Laughter Lines_. While her parents were immersed in conversation at the other end of the table, she tentatively started to hum along with him.

When he heard her, Jerome looked up. They both stopped humming. After a second, Mara realised they were basically just staring at each other and decided she should probably say something.

"That's... That's one of my favourite songs." she said quietly.

"It's one of mine too." He said. "You know, I have a feeling we're going to get along quite well, Mara Jaffray."

"I hope so, Jerome Clarke." She replied.

They heard a sigh and looked over to Poppy, who said "Mara, I feel obliged to tell you the truth."

"The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with caution." Mara quoted. Poppy simply blinked at her. "Sorry, Harry Potter quote, I couldn't resist."

"Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." Jerome said and both Mara and Poppy turned to look at him.

"Jerome!" Poppy said, sounding surprised. "I didn't know you had an inner geek."

He shrugged and Mara grinned at him. "You like Bastille _and_ Harry Potter?"

He nodded with a small smile, but before he could say anything Poppy cleared her throat, drawing the attention back to herself.

"As I was saying, I feel I should warn you, Mara, of the truth."

"Poppy, what are you talking about?"

"Be quiet, Jerome." Poppy glared at him before turning back to Mara. "Before you let yourself get into anything with my brother, you should know that Jerome can be very annoying and he plays a lot of pranks, and I'm very doubtful that he has much of a conscience, and he can be pretty vain."

"Thanks, Poops, I love you too."

"Shut up, Gerbil. However, he can be kind of cool sometimes once you get to know him so you should give him a chance before you really decide you can't stand him."

"Um, thanks?" Mara said, not entirely sure why Poppy was informing her of all this information.

"Poppy, would you stop trying to set me up. It makes me look desperate and, quite frankly, you're not very good at it."

Poppy held her hands up. "All right, whatever. Your loss, my friends tell me I'm a brilliant matchmaker."

The two of them began to bicker but Mara just laughed.

3

When the Clarkes were about to leave and everyone was stood in the hallway saying their goodbyes, Poppy went and stood by her father as she watched Jerome and Mara talking.

"Maybe we should take a picture of this moment." she said.

"Why?" John asked, looking between Poppy and Jerome and Mara curiously.

"Because when they're old and married they might want to look back at the moment they fell in love with each other." Poppy said, matter-of-factly, and her father grinned down at her.

4

"I've been meaning to say, you look really nice." Jerome was saying. "It is a very cute dress."

Mara felt her face heat up. "Th-thank you. The collar's called a Peter Pan collar." She said, looking down at herself.

"I love Peter Pan." Jerome grinned.

Mara laughed. "Me too!"

"I do believe we were meant to meet, Jaffray." He said. "We have so much in common."

Mara tilted her head to one side and said "You won't forget me, will you?"

"Me? Forget?" Then he leaned in slightly closer. "Never." Then he leaned in closer again, placed his hand on her arm, and softly kissed her on the cheek.

5

That night Mara smiled as she slept and dreamt that Jerome flew her away to Neverland where they went to a Bastille concert at which they met Albus Dumbledore who gave them his blessing.

The next morning Mara decided she'd probably had a bit too much of that weird cheese her mum had offered to everyone after dinner.

_The End._


End file.
